


otherworld

by calclutterfuck



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Doctor/Patient, Alternate Universe - Spelling Bee, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24811660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calclutterfuck/pseuds/calclutterfuck
Summary: Four different ways that Buck and Eddie meet in four different universes.I. Spelling BeeII. Summer CampIII. Doctor-PatientIV. Fraternity
Relationships: Athena Grant/Bobby Nash, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Kudos: 58





	otherworld

**Author's Note:**

> The universes that I've placed these two in are some that I have had brief interactions with. I've been a camp counselor, a patient in a hospital, and a member of a sorority. I've never participated in a spelling bee or had my doctor flirt with me. For all inaccuracies, I'm sorry. It was written in one day and has not been looked over by anyone.
> 
> As for the Doctor-Patient relationship depicted here, it is one of fiction. No doctor should be hitting on you while you're under their care. However, it's fiction, so I'm allowed to do what I want. Pretend it's Grey's Anatomy.
> 
> In the Fraternity scene, Tripper and all other brothers are figments of my imagination. Tripper happens to be an extreme example of the frat bro's I've encountered.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy! I really enjoyed writing all of these, especially the summer camp one. I may do a larger universe fic based off of that section.

**I.** The room stills as the presenter turns from her perched position on the stage and gazes out at the audience. “Hello everyone.” She greets, her voice thin. “There’s only two contestants left! A Mr. Evan Buckely from Pennsylvania and a Mr. Edmundo Diaz from Texas.” She gives a little giggle into the microphone, claps her hands shortly. Distantly, a few scattered cheers rise from the audience “However, we need a five minute break before we continue our National Spelling Bee!” A few groans emerge from the audience, but she doesn’t seem phased. “I’ll be back on this microphone when we’re ready to continue, so,” her cheeky smile doesn’t diminish, “don’t go anywhere!”

Buck heaves out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as the thick velvet curtain falls over the stage, hiding him from the bright lights and the audience. It’s him and that one other kid sitting on the sweaty plastic chairs; _Edmundo_ Buck thinks, thanking the perky presenter internally. When she had originally introduced every contestant, there had been forty nine other competitors on stage and Buck had quickly lost track of them. Even throughout the competition, Buck hasn’t allowed his attention to drift too much, so this break is both met with happiness and dread. For one thing, Buck can finally breathe and stop his internal repetition of spelling words. On the other hand, he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to get refocused enough to win.

Bucks’ internal musing is broken by a hand coming out of nowhere. “Hi,” a somewhat familiar voice says, “I’m Eddie.” As Buck looks up, still seated on his red plastic chair, he’s shocked to see that it’s the other competitor.

It’s pretty stupid to say, even in his internal thoughts, considering he’s sitting down, but the first thing Buck notices about Eddie is that he’s tall. Buck is still waiting for a growth spurt--one that his doctor (and Maddie) assure him is going to come any day now--but it doesn’t seem fair that Eddie looks like he would loom over him, even if they were both standing. The second, Buck realises, is that Eddie seems to radiate warmth. It’s not the same kind of suffocating heat that Buck has felt alternating between sitting and standing on this stage for the last three hours, under the stage lights and heavy gazes of the audience, but it’s softer. Kind of like… like when you’re laying on the beach and the sun hits _just right._

Because of Bucks’ internal musing, he takes a moment too long to respond. “Buck.” He says, suddenly, jolting himself out of admittedly embarrassing thoughts. He grabs the hand that Eddie’s been holding out, a firm handshake. “I’m Buck.” He hopes he’s not red, but, distantly, he thinks: I could blame it on the competition, if he notices.

“Nice to meet you, Buck.” Eddie says, a grin sliding over his face. He doesn’t look confused, the way some kids or, well, mostly parents, do when he introduces himself as Buck rather than _Evan._ “I just wanted to say you’ve been doing a great job and,” suddenly he looks embarrassed too, “ And I’m sorry there can only be one winner.”

Buck shrugs, distantly kicks one foot at the metal chair leg. “Thanks, but, I’m not really into the spelling bee thing…” He wrinkles his nose, “I’m mostly just doing it for my parents.” He admits, finally saying it out loud.

“Oh,” Eddie says, and there’s a moment of silence, so Buck hurries to fill it.

“I mean,” He rushes, “my older sister, Maddie, won the state spelling bee like, ten years ago. And like, my parents are really into it. They always just assumed that because I was good at it, like Maddie, that I’d be into it.” He kicks at the chair leg again, “So, uh, here I am.” He gestures at the stage. “Pennsylvania State Spelling Bee Champion, at the National Competition.” He watches Eddie nod.

Their conversation is broken by the voice of the presenter, echoing scratchily on the microphone. “Our competition will begin again in two minutes, all audience members should now begin their journey back to their assigned seats.”

Eddie hooks one thumb over his shoulder, “I should probably head back over to my seat. But, uh, Buck,” he begins, still smiling, “good luck.”

Buck nods, feeling a little dumb and a little awkward, like he’s said too much during their brief exchange. “You too.” He says, voice catching. He watches Eddie start to walk back to his seat, only a few feet away, “Hey Eddie!” He doesn’t quite shout, but watches Eddie’s head swivel back in his direction. “You’ve been _assiduous_ in this competition.”

The smile he receives in turn, it’s blinding.

The competition restarts, and unfortunately, Buck is up first. He stands, finally, and shuffles up to the podium. He squints in the light, but tries to make direct eye contact with the presenter.  
“Your final word,” she says, looking down at the sheet of paper, “is chiaroscurist.” She repeats herself, “The word is: chiaroscurist.”

Buck swallows, nervous, feeling the heat of the bright lights on him. “Can I have the definition?” He asks, and she nods. He listens carefully as she explains that it’s a style of monochromatic shading used in art, and unfortunately, Buck knows he’s screwed.

“Chiaroscurist,” Buck begins, trying to do his best educated guess, “C-h-i-a-r-a-s-c-u-r-i-s-t,” he spells, “Chiaroscurist.”

The presenter's face falls, “Unfortunately, that is incorrect.” She bobs her attention back to the audience, “Now, we just need our remaining candidate to spell the word correctly and we have a winner!”

Buck walks away from the podium, crossing paths with Eddie as he does so. “I’m sorry,” Eddie whispers. Buck watches as he spells the word correctly and confidently. “Chiaroscurist.” He finishes.

“And we have our National Spelling Bee Champion!” the presenter announces, a grin stretching over her face. “Mr. Edmundo Diaz from Texas!”

The whole affair of Nationals cleans up much quicker than it began. Eddie is given his massive trophy and a certificate and has some photos taken with the presenter and his parents.

Buck is greeted backstage by his parents and Maddie. “I'm sorry kid,” Maddie says, immediately pulling him into a hug. “I’m so proud of you though! Second place at the National Spelling Bee!” Her arms get tighter around him, “Amazing.”

“You did good.” His mother admits, a small smile crossing her face. “Second place, not bad.” His father doesn’t look like he agrees with her sentiments, but he nods slightly. Thankfully, the moment is interrupted by Eddie walking over.

“Hey Buck,” He’s smiling wide, trophy in hand. “I just wanted to say that you did great.” He shrugs, “Again.” There’s a small laugh, a moment that Buck feels uncomfortable with his family looming over the conversation. His parents and Maddie interrupt briefly, to let Buck know that they’re going to try and maneuver the car towards the front of the building so that they don’t get stuck in traffic. Buck nods.

There’s a moment of silence and suddenly Eddie holds out a piece of paper. “And uh, here’s my number. Just in case you ever want to practice, y’know, with another spelling bee kid.” He coughs awkwardly, “Or uhm, just if you ever wanted to text.”

Buck takes the slip of paper, shoves it deep in the pockets of his khakis. “Thanks Eddie.” Buck is sure he’s blushing now. “ I’ll, uh, definitely text.” They stand in silence for a moment, the noise around them slowly dying out. Bucks’ phone beeps with a text and he’s sure that Maddie is calling him to let him know the car is upfront. “I’ve gotta go.” He admits.

Eddie nods, mutters that he’d better go find his mom and dad. “But uh,” Buck starts once again, “It was nice meeting you. It was…” He pauses, trying to find the right word.

“It was ephemeral.” Eddie interjects, and Buck feels that same warmth that he did backstage.

“Ephemeral.” Buck agrees. His phone buzzes again, loud. He repeats the word again, “I gotta go.” He says and takes off at a jog.

He climbs into the back seat of the car, clips on his seatbelt, and slides his phone and the piece of paper out of his pocket. Quickly, he dials in the number that Eddie had scrawled. He types out a text, a short sentence, **i wasnt kidding when i said you were assiduous**. His phone buzzes almost immediately, and he flicks open the reply with a grin.

**\------**

**II.** “You’ve been attending camp since you were little Buck, I thought you’d be happy about this.” Maddie admits as they pull onto the long dirt road that leads to the entrance of what Buck is assuming will be the absolute worst summer of his life. A carved wooden sign welcomes them: Welcome to Camp Takkamaloo!

Both internally and externally, Buck groans. “Mads, I’m going to college next year. I wanted to hang out with my home friends.” He dramatically leans back and halfway falls into the back seat. “Now I’ll be reliving my childhood at camp, be stuck babysitting some goofy kids, _and_ ,” Buck springs back up to look at Mady dramatically; “And there’s not going to be one single, hot, guy here.”

They pull into the staff parking lot and Maddie turns off the car. She swivels in the driver's seat, twists her body to look at him. “Buck,” she says in a way that makes him feel all of eleven years old. “You’re overreacting. There’s gonna be like, tops five people that remember you as a camper. You love working with kids. And,” she rolls her eyes, “you haven’t even left the car yet. How do you know your dream summer fling isn’t waiting for you?”

Buck doesn’t want to admit that she’s made a great counterargument, so he doesn’t. What he does do is ignore her completely, pop out the passenger side door, and close it with a loud bang. Maddie, it seems, has given up on pretending to participate in his misery. She doesn’t say anything, just hauls out his massive duffle bag for eight weeks of summer camp and drops it in the dirt at his feet with a bang. A cloud of dust rises up.

She hauls out her own bag, hoists it up on her shoulder. “I talked to Bobby and Athena last week, so I know where I’ve been assigned for this summer. You should probably head to the Big House and see what you’ve got.”

She leaves Buck standing by their dusty car, and briefly he entertains the idea of hopping back in and driving the seven hours back to Pennsylvania. It’s irrational, especially considering he knows Maddie has the keys firmly tucked away in the front pocket of her shorts, but it’s an idea that still momentarily implants itself in his brain. Sighing, he grabs his bag out of the dirt and walks in the direction of the Big House.

As soon as the giant log cabin enters into view, Buck notes Athena and Bobby on the front porch. They’re working on hanging a massive banner that reads ‘Welcome to Camp!’ in yellow and green. Athena notices him first; “Evan Buckley!” she greets, a wide smile on her face. “You better come here and give me a hug!”

Buck is immediately folded into her arms. It feels familiar. “Hi Athena,” Buck greets, his massive duffle squashed between them.

“Hun, you gotta let him put his bag down first. You’re killing him.” Bobby chides, but there’s mirth in his eyes. “Hey Buck, good to see you.” When Athena releases him, Bobby lets him drop his baggage before tugging him into a similar feeling hug. “I was a little surprised when Maddie said you were gonna be a counselor this year,” he admits, clapping him on the back, “but you’ve always been welcome at Camp Takkamaloo.”

Buck feels a flush crawl over his face. “Thanks Bobby. Athena.” He stands awkwardly for a moment, before he manages to jolt himself out of it. “So, Maddie said you had my assignment.”

Athena huffs out a laugh, but before she can continue Bobby interrupts. “I’m going to go grab some nails from the back shed so we can finish hanging up that sign, hun. You get Buck settled.” He focuses his attention on Buck once again, and although the moment is brief Buck feels settled and distinctly has the thought that maybe this summer won’t be a tragic waste of time. “I’m really glad you decided to come Buck.”

He jogs off the porch, skipping the last few steps. Athena shakes her head, rolls her eyes, “Honestly, sometimes he acts more like a camper than the actual kids.” She claps her hands once though, turning her attention back to Buck. “Come with me darling,” she instructs, heading down the porch steps in a much more dignified manner than her husband, “we’re going to introduce you to your co-counselor.”

Buck learns four things in quick succession:

Realization number one: Bucks’ summer is going to be eight weeks of fun filled activities with ten boys, all aged eight to ten.

Two: Buck is going to be wrangling the over-energized children in this adventure in a partnership with Eddie Diaz, a third year counselor from Texas.

The third realization, Buck admits, is that Eddie Diaz is by far the most attractive man to ever grace the sprawling grounds of Camp Takkamaloo. He’s not as tall as Buck, but he’s sturdier. He has brown hair that he’s managed to style in a way that looks roll out of bed effortless, whereas Buck simply shaves his because it’s too unruly to do much with. His smile is crooked, slightly, but it only seems to add to the charm that Eddie oozes from every pore. [There’s a short moment, Buck rethinks his assessment of Eddie, his brain taking him back to his oh-so-unfortunate crush on his counselor as a scrawny thirteen year old. But no, even charming Daniel, who had graciously ignored all of thirteen year old Bucks subpar flirting attempts, had not been this hot.]

Realization number four hits as Athena introduces them. As he shakes Eddie’s hand, noticing the strong grip, the callouses that should be unappealing but only stand as a sign that this is a man who works with his hands, number four crosses his mind. Four: Maddie was kind of right, who was Buck to judge immediately with no context that he wasn’t going to find his ultimate summer fling at Camp Takkamaloo.

“I’m Buck.” He says stupidly, echoing information that Athena has definitely already informed Eddie of. He notices her raised eyebrows, a smirk sliding across her face.

“I’ll let you two get acquainted.” She says, excusing herself. “I’m going to go see Maddie, see if she and Hen are settled in.” Athena gives one last knowing look before she finally exits the cabin, “You two behave.”

**\------**

**III.** There’s four things that allow Buck to come to the realization that he’s in the hospital. One is the smell of disinfectant that seems almost overwhelming. The second is the feeling of scratchy sheets underneath him. Unfortunately enough, Buck has been a patient enough that he could pick these sheets out of a line-up. The third is the weight of something heavy on his right leg, seemingly pushing it down. The fourth, however, is that when he opens his eyes, there is a blurry image of a human above him. “Mph.” Buck says, his voice seemingly stuck.

“It’s okay, sir.” the blur assures him. “You’re at UCLA Medical Center, my name is Dr. Diaz, and you were admitted because of a car accident.” The information is given in a soft tone, the words even. “Sir, everything is okay.”

A brief scene floats into Bucks’ head. He’d been driving home from work,it had been raining, and… and he’d hydroplaned. Buck nods, his head feeling heavier than ever. “Anyone hurt?” He asks, the words sticking together.

His doctor huffs out a laugh. “Besides you?” The blur shakes his head, “No, just you. Now, sir, can you tell me your name?”

Buck blinks a few times, and suddenly the doctor becomes less of a blur and more of an actual human being. There’s the appearance of brown eyes, brown hair, and teeth that are so white Buck is actually jealous for a moment. “I’m Buck.” He says stupidly, before catching himself. “Evan Buckley.” He corrects himself, “But everyone calls me Buck.”

“Buck it is then,” Dr. Diaz says with a smile and all the jealousy fades away from Buck. It’s quickly replaced by attraction that blooms in a stupid way when Dr. Diaz begins to explore the injuries that Buck has sustained. “So, Buck, you were very lucky. The only injuries from your car accident that I can diagnose you with is a light concussion, one broken right femur, and a few small cuts and lacerations.” At Bucks’ nod, he continues. “I’m prepared to release you into the care of someone, do you have someone I can call?”

“Maddie Buckley,” Buck offers with a chagrin look, “She’s actually a nurse here.” As he says her name, Maddie jogs into his hospital room. She’s wearing a pair of bright pink scrubs, her hair haphazardly tossed into a bun on the top of her head, and a disappointed look is affixed to her face.

“Buck!” She scolds, walking over to his bedside and placing one hand in his hair. “You can’t keep injuring yourself like this, you’re going to give me a complex. Every time I get paged over the loudspeaker, I’m starting to think you’ve been injured.”

Buck looks at her sheepishly, then back to his doctor. “I have kind of a… problem getting into accidents.” Instantly, his stupidly long list of accidents over the last five years pop into his head. Getting hit in the head by a foul ball at the Angels game. Spraining his ankle while babysitting for Hen and Karen. Getting caught in a riptide at the beach and nearly drowning. Breaking two fingers while helping Bobby retile his roof.

“A penchant for getting injured is more like it,” Maddie grouses, cutting off Bucks internal tally. “I’m just glad you’re okay for the most part.”

Dr. Diaz is still smiling. “Well, I’m glad he has someone looking out for him. I’m Dr. Eddie Diaz, the new orthopedic surgeon.” He holds a hand out for Maddie to shake and she grabs it tightly, thanking him for taking care of Buck while she was finishing up with a patient. “It’s not a problem.” He assures her.

His attention switches back to Buck, who’s blearily been following along the best he can with a _light_ concussion. “It was also a pleasure meeting you Buck, I’ll see you in a few weeks for a check-up.”

“Unfortunately,” Maddie admits, “You’re going to have to hang out here for maybe half an hour. I just started my twelve hour shift and pediatrics is already short-staffed. I’ll put in a call to Chim and get him to come rescue you.” She swivels to look at Dr. Diaz, “If that’s okay with you. Chim’s my fiance.”

Dr. Diaz assures her that it is, and Maddie shuffles off to both inform Chim that Buck needs to be picked up from the hospital and that once again he’s managed to accidentally injure himself. “I’ll be happy to wait with you.” His doctor says, that nice bright grin still shining.

Buck nods, stupidly, still a little stunned that his doctor is such a… a smokeshow. That’s the only word that’s floating across his brain. “Thanks,” Buck says, realizing he hasn’t yet said it. “For, uh, helping me.”

“It’s the job.” Dr. Diaz says simply, snapping off one blue rubber glove and depositing it into the garbage bin. “But,” He tacks on, turning to lock his eyes with Bucks’, “it’s always easier when the patient is so handsome.”

**\------**

**IV.** Buck really isn’t into frat life, despite what everyone thinks. Buck joined his freshman year because he was lonely, a little bored, and Chim had assured him that ‘you’ll fit in just fine, dude. Zeta Psi, was like, my life.’

Sure, Buck knows he’s like, got that bro-life down pat, but it’s not really his thing. So when Buck arrives his sophomore year back to Berkley, he’s not expecting much to change. He’ll party just enough so people think he has a social life, make sure the frosh pledges have a decent enough time during rush that they won’t drop letters, and study just enough so that he can keep his scholarships. Everything changes during their first chapter meeting.

Buck has spent the last four hours cramming his belongings into the tiny room that he’d been given dibs on by Bobby last year. He’s sweaty, covered in dust, and really just wants to lie down and knock for a few hours before he has to begin getting ready for the darty tomorrow. Still, he slumps down deep into the purple bean bag chair and tries to keep his eyes focused on the PowerPoint that outlines the ‘need to know’ shit.

Buck kinda zones out as Tripper goes through the regular rules, general reminders, and tells that one story about the time he ran from campus safety and ended up sleeping in the bushes by the psychology building. Then, the mood shifts. The next slide has the smiling face of a stranger on it, ‘exciting announcement’ typed in comic sans next to the image.

“We have a transfer!” Tripper sings, suddenly dramatic. He spins his baseball hat around on his head so that it’s actually facing the right direction for one and points into the back of the crowd. “We have a _legacy_ joining us, boys!” Tripped crows. “C’mon up!”

The stranger, the transfer, the guy in the PowerPoint, walks up the stage. He looks a little embarrassed, face flushed slightly, but hops onto the make-shift stage to join Tripper, who hands him the microphone and tells him to ‘introduce yourself, bro.’

“I’m Eddie Diaz,” the new guy says, his voice soft and nowhere near as theatrical as Tripper. “I transferred from University of Texas in Austin. I’m a junior and a business major.”

There’s a few scattered claps from the rest of the chapter. Tripper, sitting on the bottom step of the staircase, cups his hands around his mouth and howls out: “LEG-A-CY.” He divides the word into three individual parts

Eddie immediately flushes, he gets too close to the head of the microphone and mumbles, “Uh, yeah. My dad was a zetes back in the eighties.”

That’s the most interesting part of the chapter meeting. Or well, for Buck at least. Tripper gets back on stage and continues to talk for another twenty minutes, but Buck doesn’t hear a single word that comes out of his mouth. He’s absolutely fixated on Eddie, who immediately jumped off the stage and went back to slouching against the wall in the back of the group.

Chapter ends with Tripper howling at him like he’s some kind of hybrid wolf monster and then reminding the group that ‘we got a darty tomorrow boys!’ Buck is startled from his staring, and struggles to escape the clutches of his bean bag chair before he can embarrassing himself by doing something dumb, like getting caught mooning over his new fraternity brother.

Unfortunately, Lady Luck has never been in Bucks favor. Just as soon as Buck has managed to escape the comfortable clutches of his purple bean bag, he’s approached by a smiling Tripper. “Hey Buck,” he greets. Buck is about to reply, make some dumb excuse that he’s still gotta finish unpacking, but Tripper beats him to it. “Gimmie one sec man, Hey!” He calls over his shoulder, craning his neck to look at Eddie, who’s been surrounded by a few of the other brothers who are introducing themselves. “Eddie, hop on over, man.”

Eddie joins them, making them a trio. “This is Buck,” Tripper introduces. “He’s gonna be your roommate. Third floor of the house, second door on the right.” A look of confusion crosses his face briefly, “You are in Bobby’s old room right? You got his dibs when he graduated?” Buck nods, his throat and mouth suddenly sandpaper dry.

“Cool,” Eddie says, a genuine smile crossing his face. “Nice to meet you.”

Buck coughs once, wishes he had a bottle of water. His eyes linger on an open can of natty light that’s been tucked into the cupholder of a lawn chair. He doesn’t know which brother left it or when, so he decides against it. “Uh, yeah,” Buck says. “Nice to meet you.” He hooks one thumb over his shoulder, “I’ll show you where the room is, and uh, I think I’ve got the second key up there too.”

“Nice.” Eddie says, “All my shit is still in my car. It’ll be great to unpack and just be able to… y’know, relax.”

“Yeah.” Buck says halfheartedly, leading Eddie up the rickety stairs. As he climbs up the large staircase, heading up to the third floor, the sarcastic thought rings through his head: _Yeah, relaxing while sharing a room with the hottest guy in my fraternity. Not possible._


End file.
